The Swarm
"The Swarm" is the 16th episode of season one of Generator Rex and the 16th of the overall series. It debuted on October 29, 2010. Overview A mysterious EVO anomaly is destroying numerous villages in Eastern Asia by eating all of their metal contents. Agents Six, Rex, Holiday and Bobo are sent out to investigate and discover the problem. Locating another village in danger, it turns out to be a swarm of over-sized EVO insects, but they are not your average EVO and turn out to be a lot more difficult to defeat. Providence flees and the swarm converges towards Beijing, China. It is up to Rex to stop them, but since all of his nanite weapons are made of metal, he has a difficult time dealing them. However, Holiday makes suggestions on the correct way to deal with the swarm. As she is continuously shunned and dismissed by her colleagues, Providence makes things worse by causing the swarm to multiply. Angered, Holiday resumes her own research while Providence defends the Great Wall, completely outnumbered. With the swarm minutes away from Beijing, Holiday returns with a solution. Rex unintentionally causes a situation with the solution that fortunately prompts the swarm to turn on one another, thus allowing Providence to win the war. Plot One night in a small Chinese village, a villager wakes up in the middle of the night to pump some water from the village well. Attempting to pump water into a pail, barely any water comes out. He begins to hear strange noises and the well is violently pulled into the ground. As the villager looks around, he shouts at the sight of a large, roaring insect EVO on the rooftop of his home. investigates a fallen village in the Gobi Desert. Rex immaturely guesses a tornado.]] The following day, Providence sends out Agent Six, Doctor Holiday, Bobo Haha, and Rex Salazar to investigate the now destroyed village—said to be a thriving one. While investigating, Holiday realizes that all traces of metal (iron, copper, and zinc) have been completely extracted. Rex theorizes a "magnetic tornado" and Six says an attack. Unconvinced by either guess, Holiday finds a sample of an oxidized substance. However, there is another attack not too far from the village. The agents return to the jet and immediately fly to the hot spot. Flying overhead, they notice a city is undergoing the same incident as the village. Suddenly, one of the EVOs flies into the ship, frightening the agents. The jet camera zooms in and reveals several of the EVO insects consuming every trace of metal. Although Holiday is explicitly opposed to violence, Six, Rex and Bobo jump out of the jet to face the horde. Once they land, they immediately encounter the insects. While Rex prepares to cure, Six implies to avoid holding back because they were never people. 's smack hand is bitten by the EVO insect, thus making him the new target.]] Six is the first to attack, but the EVO's exoskeleton is so hard that his swords barely have an effect. Stunned, Rex repels the EVO and punches it through a building. When he contacts Holiday, she explains that their shells are an enhanced hypertonic. Simultaneously blocking an attack, he impales it through the insect's exposed underside, instantly finishing it. Rex is pushed in from the side and uses his fists to punch back one of the insects. Lastly, Bobo fires a couple of shots, but it does nothing. Fully powering up his blasters, it ultimately takes out the EVO. Nearly attacked by an EVO that flies in overhead, Rex catches the EVO, however, the insect takes a bite out of his mechanical hand. Instantly, Rex is targeted and dodges a liquid spewed by the insect. Holiday immediately warns that it is a pheromone tag and to avoid it at all costs. With Rex now an attraction, they all flee until they are surrounded. The jet flies in just in just in time and uses its propellers to blow the insects back. Holiday then releases a mechanical claw and grabs an EVO's corpse for examination. prepares to dissect the EVO she caught—with the assistance of Bobo.]] Welcomed back on board, the team notices that the EVO insects have instantly disappeared without a trace. They eventually board The Keep, and while Rex and Bobo compare who took out more EVOs, Holiday rushes in with the EVO caught from the battlefield. Wasting no time, she dissects the insect with a giant saw, theorizing that is it a merge of locusts, termites, and beetles. Six walks in and informs the team that the swarm is located in the wilderness of Mongolia. Tracing its migrating pattern, the team realizes that the swarm will inevitably congregate to Beijing, a city with a high metal content. While Six mentions there is over a million tons of steel, Rex reminds that there are even more endangered people. believes the best way to avoid the swarm is to remain submerged.]] The swarm is located shortly afterward. They have burrowed into a deep underground nest and are currently in a dormant phase. Seeing this as an advantage, White Knight orders a bleach protocol. Holiday, on the other hand, is unhappy with the decision and believes that it will make things worse, according to scientific studies conducted in the past. She believes the best option would be to use the insects' own natural pheromone tag against them. Since the substance breaks down too fast, Holiday requests for a candidate to get a fresh batch for her. With Six and Bobo quickly turning their backs, Rex is chosen. Rex eventually exits the Keep and enters the nest. He is warned not to use his machines since it could trigger the swarm to attack him. He witnesses multiple EVO insects undergoing mitosis—splitting into pairs. Rex takes the opportunity to inject and extract one of the EVO's and it reacts by spitting up its pheromone on him. The other insects are instantly awoken and chase after him. Rex forms his boogie pack and flies from the nest. After having his boogie pack destroyed, he forms his Rex ride next and rams through a forest of trees and eventually ends up crashing into a river. Attempting to stay under for as long as he can, he eventually loses his breath. However, the Omega-1 Nanite is successful at restarting his heart, and he wakes up in Holiday's lab. Since Rex, unfortunately, could not get the sample, the bleach protocol is the only option. quarantines Rex's top, bottom and undergarments for research.]] When Rex realizes he is nude, Holiday informs him that she quarantined his clothing with some hope to salvage any pheromone off his clothing. Rex wears only a lab coat and is welcomed into the briefing room to witness the nuclear explosion. Once White Knight initiates the explosion, the swarm of EVOs begins to rapidly multiply. White Knight then orders Providence to face the swarm, stating that they will have to be picked off one by one. Obviously upset for having her warnings ignored by her comrades, Holiday storms off to carry on with her research, even though they are now forced to consult her for help. At the Great Wall, Providence is lined up and prepared for war. Once the swarm approaches the wall, Providence is prompted to engage. However, the battle becomes so overwhelming that Providence is ordered to fall back and the swarm succeeds at breaking down portions of the wall. Although they already do not stand a chance, watches as the swarm devour one another.]] Providence scales further away from the wall to delay the swarm from arriving in Beijing. Just in the nick of time, Holiday arrives with a vial that contains a highly concentrated pheromone that she recovered from Rex's underwear. As a safety precaution, Holiday reveals gallons of the synthesized pheromone just in case they are needed. With the plan to lure the swarm away, she implies that Rex needs to load one of the barrels into his blaster and climb aboard her jet. Flying through the swarm, Holiday's jet is overwhelmed by the swarm and she performs an emergency ejection. She is saved by Rex on the way down, but their parachute is torn, causing her to lose consciousness upon landing. Nearly being attacked, Rex impulsively fires the barrel of pheromone, thus allowing a strange reaction to occur. Holiday regains consciousness and witnesses the swarm devouring one another, most likely due to the potency of the pheromone. From afar, Six orders other Providence agents to load up with the barrels and perform the same action. The swarm attacks one another until not one is left, ultimately sparing Beijing from the invasion. Back at Providence, the facility is briefly watching Ultimate Exposure segment cover the Great Wall's battle. However, as revenge for Rex destroying more Lomitle than him during the battle, Bobo makes it public that "Providence's secret weapon, underwear, saves the day" by sending it to Diane Farrah, the host of the series. Rex leaves the Providence briefing room in humiliation as the story runs on the television and the other agents humorously applaud for him. Cast Trivia * It is revealed that Rex has a pair of briefs with motorcycle patterns on them. * Twice in the episode, Rex and Bobo compare the number of bugs they killed. Their comments and interactions with this strongly resemble a scene in Lord of the Rings where Legolas and Gimli count how many enemies they have killed. * Six mistakenly referred to Mongolia as Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. Category:Episodes Category:Season One episodes